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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23576704">A Serious Committment</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fill the Void [28]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:28:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,196</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23576704</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jeremy comes up to Ryan one morning and proposes . . . </p><p>That they go adopt a cat from a shelter. </p><p>Ryan simply goes along with it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jeremy Dooley/Ryan Haywood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fill the Void [28]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663750</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Serious Committment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Ryan, sweetie, I think we need to have a talk,” Jeremy said. He and Ryan were out on a date. A proper date to a restaurant with reservations and everything. The whole nine yards.</p><p>Ryan raised an eyebrow. “What about?” he asked.</p><p>Jeremy extended a hand across the table. “Take my hand.”</p><p>He frowned, but did as he was asked. “Okay.”</p><p>“Ryan, we’ve been together for a long time now,” Jeremy said. “I mean, two years is nothing to sneeze at. We’re renting a house, we’ve got two stable jobs.”</p><p>“Are you going to propose right now? Because I thought we said not until we found a house we can actually buy.”</p><p>“Ryan, let’s consider adoption.”</p><p>Ryan swallowed hard and coughed harder. “What?” He went for his glass of water with his free hand.</p><p>“Not like children. We can pin that note and return to it a few years down the road. I’m talking like … a pet. Like we go to a shelter and we visit all the cats and dogs and probably some other pets and then consider on who to bring home to our house! What do you say? We’re responsible adults now. I think it’s time to take the next step in our relationship.”</p><p>“Oh, my god. Did you have to make it such a show? I thought I was the theatre nerd.”</p><p>“Oh, please. I did do drama club in high school. So what do you say? You and me at the shelter.”</p><p>Ryan smiled at him. “It’s a date.”</p>
<hr/><p>During their transition from teenagers into adulthood and the experience with family pets, both had early on in their lives decided that they were cat people. Well, Ryan wasn’t hardcore a cat person, but Jeremy was, and Ryan could live with a cat. They’d revisit the idea of a dog later down the road. Probably around the same time they’d decide of adopting children was something they could do.</p><p>Because both of them were passionate about the care that animals received at shelters, they looked to investigate each shelter they came across, understanding their management and level of care and also seeing where proceeds went and how they were encouraging people to take care of their pets. They came to the shelter that was just in their neighborhood, a small place that often got students to volunteer their time and welcomed in any stray animals in the neighborhood. A small place, maybe, but they still had quite a few animals under their care.</p><p>The manager there, a lovely woman by the name of Lindsay with red hair and a passion for animals, showed them around and introduced them to each cat in her car. Their names, their likes and dislikes, and any special treatment they needed.</p><p>“And this last one here is Toast,” she said. She didn’t open the cage like she’d done with a few of the others to let them hold the cats and pet them a little. In fact, this cat was as far back as it could be in its cage.</p><p>“Just came to use two months ago, and so far I honestly haven’t been able to figure out why she’s so shy. We think she might’ve been abandoned, so that’s why she was brought here to us. Only two years old. We got her vaccinated and spayed, treated her for flees and worms. So she’s in tiptop shape, but she’s just shy. So if you’re planning on taking her home, you just really need to be patient and available to her. Let her come to you and always keep your doors and windows closed. She’ll probably try to escape.”</p><p>Jeremy immediately looked up to Ryan, and his eyes said yes, but Ryan was a bit on the fence. “It’s a lot of work,” he said.</p><p>“Yeah, but look at her. She’s adorable.”</p><p>“And her name is Toast.”</p><p>“That is literally just a placeholder,” Lindsay reminded them. “In fact, it was my husband who named her. Do what you like?”</p><p>“Come on, Ryan,” he said. “If you do this, I will very seriously consider the whole dog thing.”</p><p>Here’s a little seldom known secret: Ryan is incapable of denying Jeremy anything.</p><p>“We’ll take her,” he said.</p><p>Jeremy beamed at him, and Ryan couldn’t even feel bad about it. He just wanted Jeremy to be happy.</p>
<hr/><p>As Lindsay had said, Toast was skittish. Jeremy kept her in the cat carrier for some time to let her acclimatize to the climate of the house. The temperature, the sounds, the smells, while Ryan just sprinkled a few cat toys on the carpet of their living room, set up a food and water dish and found a place to put the litterbox that would hopefully not let the odor drift through the house. He watched as Jeremy knelt by the carrier for a considerable amount of time before Ryan could pull him away to have some dinner. Finally, they let Toast out and she immediately bolted for a spot under the couch. They didn’t sit on the couch that night, but they let Toast do her thing until they need to go to bed for the night. Jeremy did, however, leave the bedroom door open in case Toast wanted to come in. She didn’t, but Jeremy still did it.</p><p>It was interesting for Ryan to watch Jeremy’s behavior over the next few days. Of course they both still had to go to work for the day, but sometimes Jeremy would catch Toast sleeping in the sun out the front window on the back of the couch. So he knew she was just fine on her own. She at her food and drank water until she knew neither of them were in the room. She dutifully used the litterbox for which Ryan was forever grateful for. They lived in the same house, but just operated on different levels. She at least didn’t freak out whenever Ryan came in through the door. She was just stubbornly independent.</p><p>Jeremy still kept the door to their room open at night. Three months after they had her, she decided to use it.</p><p>She usually crawled under the bed to sleep against Ryan’s old laptop since the battery heated up so quickly, or she could be found in the laundry hamper. She worked her way to the bed eventually. Jeremy wouldn’t make the first move until she did, and eventually Ryan would wake up to the sight of Toast lying contently on Jeremy’s chest while Jeremy was still fast asleep.</p><p>“Spoiled,” he would say to her. She, of course, would ignore him. Ryan didn’t take it personally.</p><p>It wasn’t until five months passed that Ryan would wake up to heavy cat paws on his chest. Kneading and purring, claws digging into the fabric of clothes and then into his skin.</p><p>What a wakeup call.</p><p>“Oh, Toast,” he said as she circled around on his stomach to find a comfortable position. “How I love our morning routines together.”</p><p>An audible camera <em>snap </em>went off, and Ryan turned his head to see Jeremy in the doorway of the bedroom.</p><p>“I’m sending this to Gavin,” he said. “He’s gonna love it.”</p>
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